Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival

Today we are vendors at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. This is the first year for us and it appears to be a wonderful show. Our big seller for today is the Conversion Kits that adapt the Featherweights into felting machines that we call "Feather Felters". The adaptors make the machine transition from a sewing machine into a felting machine. I sold out of all I had brought for the entire 3 days before noon today. Who knew?

One fun happening was that I reconnected with two of my former students. Clare Thornley, who was one of my students at Midwest Folk and Fiber in Crystal Lake, IL, brought in her finished landscape to show me and then minutes later, a student from my landscape class last October at Amado Territories (south of Tuscon) appeared. It's it a small world, is't it? I was amazed.

My big deal of the day was finding a copy of "Feltmaking: The Why's and Wherefores" by Sheila Smith and Freda Walker. It's out of print and I have been trying to find it, and today I did! It was at Susan's Fiber Shop booth and I was thrilled to find it. I have Sheila's other books, but had been looking for this one for months to add to my personal collection. Yippee! If you don't yet know, Susan McFarland is the brains behind the Midwest Felting Symposium, where I had a positively fabulous time in late July.

More later on this show...

World Sheep Show

I taught "Sunrise, Sunset" at the World Sheep Fest in Missouri this weekend. Here are two photos of one of my students, Robin, creating her needle felted sunset from a photo she had taken. If you look carefully, you can see her inspiration photo in the first photo here in the lower right corner. Robin also was awarded first place in the needle felted category for her cat, which was marvelous!

I had a vendor booth as well and the big sellers at this fest were my purses. The "Mermaid Bag" sold first so it is now gone, in case you were thinking of it. Not to worry, tho, I have more felted purses.

We're in Bethel, MO This Weekend

This weekend I taught the Sunrise, Sunset needle felted landscape class. Here is one of my students from Illinois who got up at 4:00 AM to drive to Missouri to attend the class. It was a fun but rainy weekend. I was lucky that my class was early on the first day because it literally poured the next morning and the tents and tables were soaked. My traveling partner Terry brought home a Great White Pyrr puppy from the festival.

Arriving at the World Sheep Show

We have arrived in Bethel, Misssouri, for the World Sheep Show. It is a historical old German community that bursts with "sheep and show" on Labor Day weekend. I'm told it's been happening for 30 years now. There are even open-air church services on Sunday. The red brick building is a Bed and Breakfast.

Notice the sign?

Our newest tool...

Today I was presented with our newest and most unique felting tool. We'll be unveiling it at the World Sheep Show in Bethel, Missouri this weekend. I can't wait to see the reaction of the felting community as we continue to develop these state-of-the art needle felting tools. Whoo hoo! We are keeping it under wraps until Labor Day weekend. If you are a felter and are near Bethel, Missouri, be sure to stop by our booth at this family-friendly festival to see the newest in our fine line of felting tools.

Flowers for Bonnie

This is a photo of the felted flowers we made for one of the teachers at the Midwest Felting Symposium who became too ill to continue teaching her class.

Midwest Felting Symposium

Lucky me. I was able to get into Andrea Graham's Painting with Wool class at the Midwest Felting Symposium in Madison, Wisconsin. This piece is called "Memories of Moweaqua". It is based on a photograph that my dad took several years ago of his cherished tree that sits at the end of his driveway to welcome visitors to Spring Creek Acres.

Cria at Southwind

Today we made a trip to see the cria at Southwind Alpaca Farm near Springfield, IL. Cria is what baby alpaca are called. This one is a baby boy. He's healthy, alert and very watchful of the visitors who are there to see him.

Catz Pizzazz

My quilt, Catz Pizzazz, won a Best of Show award at the Macon County Fair in Decatur, Illinois, where I new spend my summers. It is pink and black and features cats. It was the color that drew me to it initially. This quilt was also displayed at the Arizona Quilters Guild Annual Show in March.

Hoosier Hills Fiber Arts Festival

I had the good fortune of vending and teaching (and even signed up for a class myself) at Hoosier Hills Fiber Arts Festival held in Franklin, IN, just south of Indianapolis. It was a lovely venue with good weather and a good crowd. The class I taught was Beads, Baubles and BLING!! and here are some photos of student work from that class, which focused on embellished felting... I provided a wide variety of fibers for creative play including silks, velvets, taffetas, and feathers. The orange piece used a maroon velvet and three marbles for the dimensional effect, while the green featured Hannah silk. What great fun.

Nan Talley, of FiberAntics USA, is busily teaching the rolling process during the nuno felting class . Nan is a very experienced nuno teacher. Her website is www.fiberanticsusa.com

I also had the privilege of meeting Boyd and Jeri Hastings who live near Troy, Ohio. Boyd was doing demos of his needle felted projects, which as you can see, are of exceptional quality. In fact, he won the Grand Prize for his artwork . The pieces on the right are made out of treadle machine drawers. What a creative man. I’m sure you’ll be hearing more of him in the future. And the wool he uses is from his own animals. Such a talent.